Matt Harvey is clearly the weakest link in the Mets' rotation, and the coaching staff's patience with the former ace is running out. It can no longer afford to jeopardize the club's surprisingly hot start by running him out there every five or six days.

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Those numbers also continue a long-term negative trend: Since the start of the 2016 season, Harvey has a 5.80 ERA and 1.57 WHIP over 206 1/3 innings, or the equivalent of one full season. His post-Tommy John success in 2015 is ancient history; his form post-thoracic outlet surgery is the new normal.

Callaway is prepared to move away from Harvey similarly to how he moved away from Zack Wheeler in spring training. Wheeler was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas after multiple bad outings.

Harvey would need to agree to a minor league assignment; he told reporters after the game, per MLB.com, he couldn't answer whether he would do so. Even if he doesn't go to Vegas, he has little say over whether he'll keep starting, even though he insists he's "a starting pitcher" who prepares as one.

Looking at the situation from afar, Callaway and the front office have four other options besides a demotion:

1. Keep him in the rotation. Harvey did finish his outing with three scoreless innings after falling behind 6-0. Will that earn him another chance?

"I think there's a lot to still prove, but I believe that I took a step in the right direction," Harvey said, per MLB.com.

To be frank, though, there's no room for baby steps. The Mets are leading an NL East that's much deeper than it was a year ago, and Harvey is getting hit around (40.0 percent hard-hit rate entering Thursday, per Fangraphs) as he struggles to pitch with diminished velocity.

2. Let him figure it out as a multi-inning reliever (aka "long man"). New York has rotation depth at the major-league level. Seth Lugo is ready now to step in, and offseason pickup Jason Vargas (broken hand) is working toward making his season debut.

Harvey could treat low-leverage outings as full-speed bullpen sessions in which he and the Mets' catchers and coaches can develop a better game plan.

3. Make him a guinea pig in a "bullpenning" experiment. Harvey and either Lugo or Robert Gsellman could, in theory, form one of the better "bullpen day" tandems east of Houston, but Harvey has been giving up a lot of runs early: He has an 8.25 ERA in innings 1-3 after allowing six over the first three Thursday.

4. Cut him loose. That's by far the least likely scenario, for several reasons. As noted, he can refuse to go to the minors, and it's too early for general manager Sandy Alderson to trade him; that's assuming Harvey still has any value. Releasing him would provide shock value, but the remaining players don't deserve that drama.

The most realistic approach, then, is to have Harvey throw low-risk innings in the majors for the time being, with the hope that he finally unlocks something that will make him one of the team's five best starters again.